Henrik Ibsen

"The real pioneers in ideas, in art and in literature have remained aliens to their time, misunderstood and repudiated. And if, as in the case of Zola, Ibsen and Tolstoy, they compelled their time to accept them, it was due to their extraordinary genius and even more so to the awakening and seeking of a small minority for new truths, to whom these men were the inspiration and intellectual support. Yet even to this day Ibsen is unpopular, while Poe, Whitman and Strindberg have never "arrived.""

"Always do that, wild ducks do. They shoot to the bottom as deep as they can get, sir — and bite themselves fast in the tangle and seaweed — and all the devil's own mess that grows down there. And they never come up again."

"A marriage based on full confidence, based on complete and unqualified frankness on both sides; they are not keeping anything back; there's no deception underneath it all. If I might so put it, it's an agreement for the mutual forgiveness of sin."

"Forget that foreign word "ideals." We have that good old native word: "lies.""

"Tar De livsløgnen fra et gennemsnitsmenneske, så tar De lykken fra ham med det samme."

"Our common lust for life."

"Oh courage...oh yes! If only one had that...Then life might be livable, in spite of everything."

"Back he'll come...With vine leaves in his hair. Flushed and confident."

"Mrs. Elvsted: You have some hidden motive in this, Hedda! Hedda: Yes, I have. I want for once in my life to have power to mold a human destiny. Mrs. Elvsted: Have you not the power? Hedda: I have not—and never had it. Mrs. Elvsted: Not your husband's? Hedda: Do you think it's worth the trouble? Oh, if only you could understand how poor I am. And fate has made you so rich!"

"Everything I touch seems destined to turn into something mean and farcical."

"Men, gud sig forbarme,—sligt noget gír man da ikke!"

"The younger generation will come knocking at my door."

"A forest bird never wants a cage."

"Luftslotte,—de er så nemme at ty ind i, de. Og nemme at bygge også."

"People who don't know how to keep themselves healthy ought to have the decency to get themselves buried, and not waste time about it."

"When we dead awaken. … We see that we have never lived."

"He who possesses liberty otherwise than as an aspiration possesses it soulless, dead. One of the qualities of liberty is that, as long as it is being striven after, it goes on expanding. Therefore, the man who stands still in the midst of the struggle and says, "I have it," merely shows by so doing that he has just lost it. Now this very contentedness in the possession of a dead liberty is characteristic of the so-called State, and, as I have said, it is not a good characteristic. No doubt the franchise, self-taxation, etc., are benefits — but to whom? To the citizen, not to the individual. Now, reason does not imperatively demand that the individual should be a citizen. Far from it. The State is the curse of the individual. With what is Prussia's political strength bought? With the absorption of the individual in the political and geographical idea. The waiter is the best soldier. And on the other hand, take the Jewish people, the aristocracy of the human race — how is it they have kept their place apart, their poetical halo, amid surroundings of coarse cruelty? By having no State to burden them. Had they remained in Palestine, they would long ago have lost their individuality in the process of their State's construction, like all other nations. Away with the State! I will take part in that revolution. Undermine the whole conception of a State, declare free choice and spiritual kinship to be the only all-important conditions of any union, and you will have the commencement of a liberty that is worth something. Changes in forms of government are pettifogging affairs — a degree less or a degree more, mere foolishness. The State has its root in time, and will ripe and rot in time. Greater things than it will fall — religion, for example. Neither moral conceptions nor art-forms have an eternity before them. How much are we really in duty bound to pin our faith to? Who will guarantee me that on Jupiter two and two do not make five?"

"There are three Empires. First there is the Empire which was founded on the tree of knowledge. Then there is the Empire founded on the tree of the Cross. The third is still a secret Empire which will be founded on the tree of knowledge and the tree of the Cross — brought together."

"That power which circumstances placed in my hands, and which is an emanation of divinity, I am conscious of having used to the best of my skill. I have never wittingly wronged any one. For this campaign there were good and sufficient reasons; and if some should think that I have not fulfilled all expectations, they ought in justice to reflect that there is a mysterious power without us, which in a great measure governs the issue of human undertakings."

"Erring soul of man — if thou wast indeed forced to err, it shall surely be accounted to thee for good on that great day when the Mighty One shall descend in the clouds to judge the living dead and the dead who are yet alive!"

"At leve er — krig med trolde i hjertets og hjernens hvælv. At digte, — det er at holde dommedag over sig selv."

"The great secret of power is never to will to do more than you can accomplish. The great secret of action and victory is to be capable of living your life without ideals. Such is the sum of the whole world's wisdom."

"I hold that man is in the right who is most closely in league with the future."

"The great task of our time is to blow up all existing institutions — to destroy."

"It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals; let them make their experiments on journalists and politicians."

"Tvert imot!"

"I thank God that in the bath of Pain He purged my love. What strong compulsion drew Me on I knew not, till I saw in you The treasure I had blindly sought in vain. I praise Him, who our love has lifted thus To noble rank by sorrow, — licensed us To a triumphal progress, bade us sweep Thro' fen and forest to our castle-keep, A noble pair, astride on Pegasus!"

"I feel myself like God's lost prodigal; I left Him for the world's delusive charms. With mild reproof He wooed me to his arms; And when I come, He lights the vaulted hall, Prepares a banquet for the son restored, And makes His noblest creature my reward. From this time forth I'll never leave that Light, — But stand its armed defender in the fight; Nothing shall part us, and our life shall prove A song of glory to triumphant love!"

"Tho' Doubt's beleaguering forces hem us in, Yet Truth upon the Serpent's head shall trample. The cause of Love shall win —"

"Yes, Love shall win!"

"An unromantic poem I mean to make Of one who only lives for duty's sake."

"I go to scale the Future's possibilities! Farewell! God bless thee, bride of my life's dawn, Where'er I be, to nobler deed thou'lt wake me."

"Ikke tusend ord sig prenter, som én gernings spor."

"Tabets alt din vinding skabte — Evigt ejes kun det tabte!"

"Brand: Svar mig, Gud, i dødens slug! gælder ej et frelsens fnug mandeviljens quantum satis? [Skreden begraver ham; hele dalen fyldes.] En Røst: [Räber gennem tordenbragene] Han er deus caritatis!"

"Peer, du lyver!"

"Om jeg hamrer eller hamres, ligefuldt så skal der jamres!"

"Ja, tænke det; ønske det; ville det med; men gjøre det! Nej, det skjønner jeg ikke!"

"Hvad skal manden v’re? Sig selv, det er mit korte svar."

"Really to sin you have to be serious about it."

"I'm afraid for all those who'll have the bread snatched from their mouths by these machines. You are very fond, sir, of talking about the consideration we owe to the community; it seems to me, however, that the community has its duties too. What business has science and capitalism got, bringing all these new inventions into the works, before society has produced a generation educated up to using them!"

"Look into any man's heart you please, and you will always find, in every one, at least one black spot which he has to keep concealed."

"The spirit of truth and the spirit of freedom — these are the pillars of society."

"There can be no freedom or beauty about a home life that depends on borrowing and debt."

"Nora.Look here, Doctor Rank - you know you want to live."

"Rank.Certainly. However wretched I may feel, I want to prolong the agony as long as possible.""

"I don't know whether you find also in your part of the world that there are certain people who go zealously snuffing about to smell out moral corruption, and, as soon as they have found some, put the person concerned into some lucrative position where they can keep their eye on him. Healthy natures are left out in the cold."

"What's to become of the morally sound? Left out in the cold, I suppose. We must heal the sick."

"Many a man can save himself if he admits he's done wrong and takes his punishment."

"Jeg har en sånn umåtelig lyst til å si: død og pine."